This invention is related to precision farming in which agricultural implements apply products to a field in a location specific manner.
The benefits of site specific product application control are well known in the industry. Some product application variables that may be controlled according to location within a field may include product type and product rate. The product rate may be related to an amount in weight per unit area, or to a spacing between units such as individual seeds. The product type and rate prescribed for an area may be dependent on factors such as soil type, historic yield data, and historic or expected precipitation. It has been found that application of agricultural products in such a prescribed manner can increase yields and/or reduce farming input costs to improve overall profits. Implements that use this type of technology include seeding, planting, fertilizing, and spraying equipment. On other equipment, such as harvest equipment, there may be data collection systems to collect data to be used with a prescription farming system. The prescription farming system generally includes some device for tracking location within a field, such as GPS, and a mechanism to control the product rate, type, or other parameters to be controlled according to a prescription which is commonly recorded on a prescription map corresponding to the area of the field.
An implement configured for prescription farming typically has a control system in which the prescription map is stored, or capable of reading prescription map data stored on a device such as a disk or PCcard. The map can be displayed for the operator to view in the operator""s cab. Commonly color coding may be used on the map to illustrate differences in product rate or type corresponding to different areas of the field.
Critical farming operations such as seeding or planting must typically be performed within a short window of time in order for the crop to mature within the growing season and for best yield amount and quality. Since speed and efficiency are important in farming operations, there may be more than one implement operating in a field at one time. A problem arises when each such implement is using independent precision farming systems, whereby each implement system operates without the knowledge of the other implement""s operation. Two or more of the implements may apply product to the same location, or the implements may altogether miss a location resulting in zero product being applied to that location, each of which could adversely affect yield.
The limitations and disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by a control system for controlling the dispensing of agricultural crop products to a field.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a control system for the application of agricultural products, which aids in preventing the missed application of products or the duplicate application of products to locations within a field.
It is a feature of this invention that the operator of a crop product applicator implement can be guided to appropriate locations for the dispensing of crop products, depending on information about whether there were prior applications of a crop product at those locations.
It is another object of this invention to provide a control system for controlling or guiding the application of one or more agricultural products by a product applicator implement dependent on information about one or more products that have previously been applied.
It is an advantage of this invention that the agricultural products being applied to the field may be the same as or may be different than those being presently applied by other implements at a rate that is dependent on the information about the previously applied products.
It is another feature of this invention that the product application information may include for each previously applied product, one or more of: location previously applied, rate previously applied, type previously applied, date previously applied, or other such information as may be useful in determining optimum rates for application of a product presently being applied.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a control system for controlling or guiding the application of agricultural products by a product applicator implement which aids in preventing the missed application of products or the duplicate application of products to locations within a field.
It is another advantage of this invention that the product application information can be related to the locations where product was previously applied by this or another implement.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a control system to coordinate the operation of two or more crop product applicators operating within a field to prevent the missed application of products or the duplicate application of products to locations within a field.
It is still another feature of this invention that the prior application of products can be displayed for viewing by the operator so that the operator can make decisions and provide appropriate control actions for the present application of a product within a field.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a control system that can automatically calculate and provide control signals to the control system on a product applicator implement for controlling the dispensing of a product within a field.
It is still another advantage of this invention that a display monitor may also be provided with such a system for the operator to observe and monitor the operation of the control system, and to provide the operator information for the guidance of the implement to appropriate locations within the field where product application is required.
It is yet another feature of this invention that the control system can control a plurality of dispense controls independently to apply products at a first dispensing rate from a first dispensing unit or group of units, and at a second dispensing rate from a second dispensing unit or group of units.
It is a further advantage of this invention that the independent control of a plurality of dispense controls can prevent duplicate application of product to locations where the implement may be overlapping locations where product has previously not been applied and has been applied.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a central control system for communicating with one or more control systems of product applicator implements operating within a field so that the operation of each of the implements within the filed is coordinated to prevent the missed application of products or the duplicate application of products to locations within a field.
It is a further feature of this invention that each product applicator control system may be independently calculating product dispensing rates for its location based on information being communicated with the central control system, or the central control system may be calculating and providing dispensing rate information to each product applicator control system.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a control system for each of two or more applicator implements operating within a field, which includes a communication transceiver for communicating information by which they are coordinated so that the two or more implements may communicate such information with each other or with a central control system as described above.
These and other objects, features and advantages can be accomplished by providing a control system for an agricultural implement, such as an agricultural sprayer, used to dispense a product to the ground wherein the dispensing units for the product are provided with control valves that can reduce the flow rate of product through selected dispensing units to zero. By controlling the rate of flow through the dispensing units, overlap of the application of the product to the ground can be substantially eliminated. In alternative embodiments of the invention, the control mechanism can receive data from a remote source, such as a central controller or another implement operating in the field, to define where the product needs to be applied to the ground. The application of the product can also be controlled through or in conjunction with a prescription map. Preferably, each dispensing unit is provided with a control valve operably associated with the control system so that each dispensing unit can be independently controlled to provide a variable flow rate of the product to the ground.